President Trump on Friday said his administration plans to hit the Islamic State terror group “10 times harder” every time they execute an attack against Americans, days after the extremist group called the New York City attacker one of its “soldiers.”
“What we’re doing is every time we are attacked from this point forward, and it took place yesterday, we are hitting them 10 times harder,” Trump told reporters before departing Washington for his first multi-country tour through Asia as president.
“When we have an animal do an attack like he did the other day on the West Side of Manhattan, we are hitting them 10 times harder,” he repeated. “They claim him as a soldier, good luck.”
The president continued, promising that the U.S. will “hit [ISIS] like you folks won’t believe.”
Trump’s comments come days after a 29-year-old Uzbek national plowed a rental truck into a crowd of pedestrians and bikers on Halloween, killing eight people and injuring nearly a dozen more. The attacker later told law enforcement authorities he was proud of what he had done and reportedly requested an Islamic State flag for his hospital room.
Earlier Friday, Trump said U.S. military personnel has hit Islamic State militants “much harder” over the past 48 hours and the group will continue to “pay a big price” for encouraging lone wolf attacks on American soil.
